July 27, 2011
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Book Review – Secrets of the Vine For Women by Darlene Marie Wilkinson
This book company offers free Christian books for review – you join, read a book, post the review on a public site like Amazon and your blog, and then earn the right to review another book for free. Apparently more books are offered, the more grades you get for your review.
Please consider going to this link: http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/bloggingforbooks/reviews/view/11069
and grade my review. They do ask for an email address, but do not use it for anything but to make sure you only vote once.
Thank you so much.
If you don’t want to go to the site, my review follows:
What a treasure trove of information for understanding John 15. Using a blend of vineyard stories, personal examples, Scripture and wonderful charts and graphs to open up the secrets of the vine for women (although men would also benefit from this book).
Verse by verse we examine this powerful passage of Scripture to understand how God is the vinedresser, Jesus is the vine, and we need to be grafted into the vine. All that God does in our lives is to lovingly help us to produce much fruit. God uses many methods to cause us to produce fruit from discipline and rebuke to removing obstacles to make room for more abundance. As we cooperate with God’s plan and produce fruit, we abide even deeper with Him.
One of the most helpful parts of the book for me was a list of tools to abiding. Although God works with us uniquely, studying His word, regular talking with him and a spiritual journal can help us to grow in Him. And the moment we make a move to God, things emerge that try to prevent us from abiding, what Darlene calls Abiding Busters. She provides Scriptures to help us combat these busters. We have seasons of Discipline, Pruning and Abiding with God, and each season brings us to deeper levels.
This book is perfect for a Bible study, coming equipped with a study guide. Both new Christians and seasoned believers can benefit from this study. I highly recommend it.
Hope this book review is helpful.
Heather
Comments (1)
Hi Heather … it’s been a long time since I’ve been by … so glad to see you’re still here on Xanga, and sharing!! Seems everyone has moved to Facebook. Not so sure that was a good thing, either! = I am there, as well, but not often, at all. I have missed being here, and was wondering just how many are still left. Anyway, I will have to look into the book you mentioned. Your review makes me want to read it, and I’d like to see that list of tools to abiding, as well. It sounds encouraging! So much can capture our hearts and minds to draw us away from Him. We need to allow Him to take His rightful place in our lives … and we need to abide in the vine in order to grow! Honestly, the growth of spiritual fruit in my life has been a bit stunted lately. I do keep a journal, but I haven’t been consistent this past year … along with some health issues, we’ve had lots going on in our family since we lost my in-laws last fall, and our son got married and moved back home from CA in February. We are so glad he is back home again, but there are so many adjustments as we are getting to know his wife now that she’s here, and our son all over again, as well. He has changed since living out there for those 4 years, but he is happy to be home again. He believes it’s much better here for the both of them, spiritually speaking. He said it wasn’t a good place out there for either of them. Change in our lives is inevitable, and God is using it all to grow us in Him! Right now, it’s one day at a time for all of us, walking in faith and trust! I do hope you’re all doing well, Heather. It was good to drop by … I do believe this book will help me, and I’ll go grade your review! You have a blessed weekend!
~ Deborah <><